By Ali Abare
Nasarawa State is renowned for its huge deposits of solid minerals, which can be found across the thirteen local government areas of the state. They include barytes, salt, gypsum, marble, galleria, tin, gemstone, mica, kaolin, columbite, clay, zircon, feldspar, cassiterite, limestone and lately crude oil and lithium.
Until the coming of the present administration under the leadership of Engineer Abdullahi Sule, Nasarawa State, has only been recognized in name as the Home of Solid Minerals, with no tangible efforts to harness the abundant potentials laying beneath the soil.
Certainly, before the coming of Engineer Sule administration, Nasarawa State has not been able to benefit financially from its God-given enormous potential even though the state is identified as the Home of Solid Minerals.
What has been the case all through the years was mostly artisanal mining mostly undertaken illegally, with the products of such activities squirreled out of the state, with absolutely nothing coming to the government in terms of revenue except for some few individuals who usually connive with these miners to shortchange both government and host communities.
However, with the dawn of the Engineer Sule administration, deliberate efforts are being brought to bear aimed at sanitizing the sector, particularly as it regards to curtailing the activities of illegal miners, as well as ensuring that mining communities remain secure and peaceful.
To kickstart the reform in solid minerals development, Governor Sule immediately after assumption of office, undertook familiarity visits to critical ministries and agencies relevant to his vision to transform the mining sector, where he agitated for futher collaboration and partnership between the Federal Government, states and mining communities.
Though the Nigeria Minerals and Mining Act 2007 gives ownership of all mineral resources in Nigeria and in the exclusive economic zone to the Federal Government, the administration of Governor Sule, has continued to canvass for more participation by sub nationals such as Nasarawa State, in the effort to ensure the state maximally benefits from its God given potentials.
As a way forward, the governor constituted the Committee on Solid Minerals Development, chaired by the Emir of Azara, HRH Dr. Kabiru Musa Ibrahim, saddled with the responsibility of reviewing activities of both formal and informal miners in the state, as well as proffer suggestions on the way forward, among other terms of reference.
At the conclusion of its assignment, the committee discovered that 338 mining titles were issued in Nasarawa State, out of which only 64 are active, and that out of the 64 active licenses, only 35 have organized community development agreements, 10 have environmental impact assessment, while only 17 companies are paying royalties, which explains why the state is the least on the 13 percent derivation from the Minerals Development Fund.
Part of the recommendations of the committee include revisiting the law domesticating mining in the state, organizing a stakeholders’ forum, with a view to bringing both the formal and informal miners together, as well as setting up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to handle mining activities on behalf of the state.
Governor Sule followed up with the signing of the Executive Order No. 2 in 2022, geared towards restricting all mining host communities from bequeathing Right of Occupancy of lands to entities intending to carry out mining activities in the state.
The order is also meant to protect mining host communities in the state from insecurity and other forms of criminality and the need to provide institutional support for technical assistance to artisanal miners.
The Executive Order No. 02, 2022 also mandated mining entities doing business in the state to ensure that they pay all mining and other related taxes, levies, fees, charges promptly to the Central Billing System domiciled with the Nasarawa State Internal Revenue Service.
The order equally restricted holders of mining lease or license were restricted to the powers conferred on them by the Minerals and Mining Act 2007 and the Land Use Act 1978 and to ensure restoration and reparation of the integrity of the degraded land and environment as required by these Acts.
Similarly, all mining entities are to ensure that physical development of structures must be approved by the Nasarawa State Urban Development Authority in conjunction with the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources
In as much as the states are limited in their control of mining activities, the most profound aspect of the executive order is the revolutionizing of the sector in Nasarawa State by ensuring that mining companies are required to add value to mineral resources being extracted in the state through value chain addition.
Specifically, mining companies operating in the state are expected to set up factories to process the minerals being exploited before taking them out of the state.
This spectacular move is meant to create not only employment for the teeming youths of the state but also impact necessary technical skills for the indigenes to enable them to subsequently venture into the mining business. Most significantly, the products would be assessed here in Nasarawa State, unlike before when it’s taken to Lagos, thus explaining why Nasarawa State continues to feature at the bottom of the 13 percent minerals derivation.
This multi-prong approach by the Governor Sule administration is finally berthing saw a new template for solid minerals development, with an unprecedented heights being experienced with the now famous lithium rush into the state by foreign investors.
Only recently, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited ( NNPCL), flagged off the drilling of the Ebenyi-A oil well in Obi Local Government Area of the state, as well as the unprecedented discovery of large swathe of lithium deposits in Nasarawa State.
Drawing from his verse experience in the oil and gas sector, Governor Sule relentless collaborated with the NNPCL to acquire the 2-D enhanced seismic, leading to the drilling of the first oil well in Obi where over one billion barrels of oil have been discovered.
Nasarawa State now ranks among three states in the Northern part of the country where oil is being drilled in commercial quantity, with the oil reserve in the state said to be the largest in the North so far.
In the aspect of lithium mining, with Nasarawa State so far, identified as the state with the largest deposit of this sought after mineral, three foreign companies are already setting up their business in the state, as the rush for the new oil heightens.
Landmark Lithium Mining Company will be officially commissioning its 3000 tones per day lithium processing factory in Nasarawa town by December this year. Another Chinese company, RSIN Nigeria Limited, is establishing its 4500 metric tones of lithium per day in Tudun Wada in Karu Local Government Area. The firm is expected to be officially commissioned in March next year.
Another Chinese firm, Ganfeng Lithium Mining Mining, only last week, performed the groundbreaking for its 250m dollars factory that will process another 18,000 metric tones of lithium per day in Endo Village, Nasarawa Local Government Area. In a layman’s parlance, this would be approximately 600 trucks of lithium per day.
Indeed, with deliberate efforts and policy direction committed to increasing new private sector investment in mining and solid minerals in the state, Governor Sule is succeeding in turning the economic fortunes of a state that previously solely relied on monthly federation allocation.
In fact, with the price of lithium in the global market jumping from 6, 800 to 78, 000 dollars per ton, Nasarawa State is poised to rightly answer its name as the real Home of Solid Minerals.
It is also on record that the value addition drive of the Governor Sule administration saw to the setting up of the Premium Marble and Granite Factory located in Gudi, Akwanga Local Government Area, as well as in Kokona Local Government Area, with Nasarawa State now producing 30 percent of the marble consumed in the country.
With these giant leaps being recorded by the Governor Sule administration, especially in the area of solid minerals development, Nasrawa State is now on the genuine path of sustainable development.
Abare, a special assistant on media to Governor Abdullahi Sule writes from Lafia.
